In 2022, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) introduced a new league called PBR Teams, which transformed bull riding from an individual sport to a team-based competition. The league started with eight founding teams, one of which was the Kansas City Outlaws, the first and only professional bull riding team in Kansas City.
The format of PBR Teams is straightforward. During the regular season, the teams compete in 10 events, participating in a five-on-five bull riding game every day. Each team hosts a three-day homestand, welcoming the seven other teams to their city, and also participates in two two-day neutral site events. At the end of the regular season, the teams’ win-loss records from the 28 games determine their seeding in the progressive elimination PBR Teams Championship held in Las Vegas. After three days of intense competition, the last team standing is crowned the PBR Teams Champions.
The Outlaws, after being eliminated in the first round of the Championship event in 2022, are determined to redeem themselves in the upcoming 2023 season. Their first team-hosted homestand will take place in Kansas City at the T-Mobile Center from August 3 to 5. They hope to bring the city its next world championship in October.
The Outlaws will have some familiar faces on their roster for the upcoming season, including local riders Koltin Hevalow from Smithville and Bob Mitchell from Steelville, as well as veteran contenders Kyler Oliver and Marcus Mast. They will be under the leadership of Head Coach J.W. Hart. The team also made some significant offseason additions, signing 2008 World Champion Guilherme Marchi as an Assistant Coach and acquiring Wingson Henrique da Silva through a trade with the Carolina Cowboys. Silva, who joined the team just days before the season ended, made an immediate impact and contended for both the Rookie of the Year and World Champion titles.
During Outlaw Days, the Outlaws will begin their 2023 campaign by facing the Arizona Ridge Riders on August 3, the Oklahoma Freedom on August 4, and the Missouri Thunder on August 5. The match against the Missouri Thunder marks the start of the 2023 rivalry series between the two teams, known as the Battle for the Show Me State.
